Family name origins & meanings
- German and Jewish (Ashkenazic) : from Middle High German Walhe, Walch ‘foreigner from a Romance country’, hence a nickname for someone from Italy or France, etc. This surname is also established in Sweden.
- North German : from the personal name Wole, a short form of Wol(d)er (see Wahler).
- Norwegian : habitational name from any of several farmsteads named Val, from Old Norse vaðill ‘ford’, ‘shallows’.